Phoenix Feathers
by Shiruri-Nechan
Summary: A companion series for Phoenix Call. Series of ficlets, deleted scenes, and one-shots. 2014 AU, no lemons.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: This is a COMPANION series of ficlets, deleted scenes, and one-shots to accompany my Phoenix Call story and the possible sequeal. Don't gripe about not knowing what's being referenced unless you actually read Phoenix Call.**

 **DISCLAIMER: Don't own TMNT (T_T)**

Phoenix Feathers

The Pet Store

"Oh, wow, look Miss Amber, look!"

Six year old April O'Neil grabbed her babysitters hand and dragged her all over the pet store, clearly excited about everything she was seeing. Amber couldn't help but laugh at the child's enthusiasm. After a few minutes, Amber squatted down to April's ear and playfully whispered.

"April, we're on a top secret mission for your Daddy, to help him with the lab. Do you want to be super secret turtle pickers with me?" Wide blue eyes met sparkling hazel and April nodded.

"Yeah," April whispered back loudly, making the pet shop clerk chuckle quietly. Amber smiled and shot the clerk a silent glance. Understanding the quiet communication, the young man stepped forward.

"Ladies," he began, "I have special turtles in the back of the shop. If you'll please follow me?"

April's face was solemn as she looked over the baby turtles the clerk showed them. Her seriousness made the clerk laugh again.

"Your daughter's adorable, Mrs..?"

Amber chortled. "MISS Jaquard, but please call me Amber. I babysit April here for a friend of the family."

The young man offered his hand. "Aaron Jennings, at your service. I think I've seen you in one of my evening college classes, Business Systems 304 right?"

Amber smiled. "With Professor Jackson, yes. I thought you looked familiar. I'm taking business as my major, with science on the side. You?"

Aaron gently fished out a small turtle that April declared a super secret awesome turtle before turning to answer. "I'm studying law as a major, but I kind of like business too. I think it may be due in part to working here. I really enjoy helping people."

Amber watched as Aaron knelt to talk a little to April about the turtles, and helped her pick out three more 'super secret awesome' turtles. She smiled. He was really good with kids, most guys her age were too impatient or worried about their own agenda. April came running back over to Amber as Aaron carefully put the turtles in a small container so they could be carried easier.

"Miss Amber, can we come back sometime and see the animals again, pleeeeeease?"

Glancing at Aaron, the older girl hid a small smile. "I'm sure we will, April."

As Amber paid for the turtles, she smirked and slipped Aaron her phone number on a slip of paper and said, "Just in case you ever want a study buddy." The young man seemed stunned and didn't move from his spot behind the counter until after the pair left.


	2. Chapter 2: Home Invasion

Phoenix Feathers

Chapter 2.1

Home Invasion

"April, stay behind me."

It was all Amber could say before her basement was flooded with Foot ninja. Oh, how she wished she had started with her weapons katas! She took one last note of April, she was backing into the far corner, disturbing her neatly folded stack of towels in her flight and making them spill to the floor. Amber then launched herself at the nearest Foot.

Punch, slash, sweep, repeat. She fell easily into her basic tonfa kata, only without her weapons. It was clear to her that even though the Foot had numbers in their favor, they were nowhere near as well trained. A whistling noise from April's direction made her look up in time to catch the pair of sai that had been hanging on the wall beside her younger friend. Amber twirled with them, using the extra momentum to slash them through the neck of ninja who had tried to sneak up on her. It seemed like two more just took his place, however. Sweat pooled at the base of her spine with all of her exertion. She was tiring, even as she gracefully danced with the sai in her hands. Eventually, however, there were just too many of them, too many small slashes and lucky hits. Too much, too many, and her effort seemed to be too little. Amber collapsed, clutching her sai close. She wanted to continue to fight, but she was weakened. She watched the Foot drag April from her corner and up the stairs. She hadn't been able to protect her friend. Amber had _failed_.

And it almost killed her.

OoO

Chapter 2.2

The Flour Arrangement

 **(LAUNGUAGE WARNING)**

"You need to stop being such an asshole all the time, Raph! Mikey was just playing around with you!"

"He COVERED my FACE in MAKEUP! I look like fucking LADY GAGA!"

"Well, it could be considered an improvement!"

"Yeah, let's all laugh and put makeup on Raph! Why don't we ever laugh and put makeup on Leo?"

While his two oldest brothers argued, Mikey had quietly retrieved a sack of flour from the kitchen and snuck into Raph's room. What he wouldn't give for Raph to have a ceiling fan, but he would make do with the small standing fan his brother had salvaged. He carefully coated the grate and blades with the fine white powder, getting it all over himself in the process. He them attatched a small bag of flour to the back of the fan, right where it would blow all over Raph when he turned it on, and covered it up with one of the many dirty work-out towels randomly laying around the room. Smiling to himself, he quickly took the rest of the flour back to the kitchen and began cooking before Donnie's voice floated in.

"Guys, we got Foot Clan activity!"

OoO

Chapter 2.3

Splinter's Ghost

The turtles had gathered around the woman in the needle room, waiting for the lecture that was sure to come from their senei. Splinter, for his part, was beyond shocked. Here she was, after all these years. The woman who had given of herself to breathe life into them. By rights, she would be the turtle's mother in a way. His too, but as they seemed close in age it would be more proper to consider her as a sister. Leonardo shifted uneasily, making Splinter's eyes turn to his eldest son.

"Sensei, I'm sorry, but we couldn't just leave her there. Please understand.."

The old rat raised a hand to silence the apology. "You have done the right thing, my son. This woman is as far from a threat to you and your brothers as I am. Allow her to rest, my sons. I must meditate now. Alert me when she wakes."

Splinter glided out of the needle room and into his private rooms. He thought he'd never see the kind woman again. Hell, he had thought she may have burned in the fire that little April had rescued them from. When the young girl had appeared in the blazing lab, unattended by her female guardian, Splinter had assumed the worst. He had mourned the loss of such a pure soul and vowed that he would do what he could if April was ever in trouble in honor of the young woman's memory. _Indeed, there is much to think about._


	3. Chapter 3: Q&A

Phoenix Feathers

Chapter 3.1

The Flour Boy (Per Request)

Raph flopped on his bed. The woman in his brother's lab was a mystery. He wondered about her, if sai's were her favorite weapons like his. It would be cool to have a human he practice with. He practiced his katas in his room a lot, because they were just so different from the others his brothers did. He didn't think they were flowing or graceful. To him, they were quick and to the point, much like himself, unrefined and wild. Raph twirled his weapons in his hands, he had begun to practice without really thinking about it, and he was really getting sweaty. Jeez, why did it always have to get so hot in here? He reached under a towel and turned the knob on the fan to 'on'. Instantly, he was coated in a fine, white powder, as was the rest of his room. Rage pooled in his stomach like the flour currently mixing with his sweat and pooling all over him.

"MIKEY!"

Chapter 3.2

Q&A

Amber sighed internally at the four curious stares directed at her. Splinter sat next to her, offering her more tea which she politely accepted. It was still surreal to her that she was sitting on a couch in the sewers with a rat and the four baby turtles she had bought for the lab testing 15 years ago. _I told him, I told him, I told him!_

"Um, ok Miss-"

"Please, don't call me Miss. My name is Amber Jennings. As you may have guessed, I had access to Project Renaissance, a project which all of you were a part of. I was not technically a lab assistant, but April's babysitter. Dr. O'Neil and I talked in the lab often when I would bring April by after picking her up from school. I was just as curious as little April about the experiments in the lab. I was always more than happy to help out with what I could."

Mikey claimed a position on the couch on the other side of Amber, pizza hanging halfway out of his mouth and baby blues staring up at her curiously. "Like, help out how?"

The woman hummed. "Like staying up all night to help work on formulas, giving a blood sample for them to work mutagen off of, or stopping at the local pet shop to buy four tiny baby turtles for the lab."

Donnie's eyes went wide. "Wait, _you_ gave the blood sample to use in our batches of mutagen?"

Quizzical hazel eyes turned curiously to the intelligent turtle. "Yes. Is that significant? I know mutagen doesn't need DNA, per se, but Dr. O'Neil thought that perhaps for the cure he was searching for to work, it would need a human genome to bond with."

Leo's eyes narrowed. "What was he searching for a cure for?"

"I'm not sure, but I trusted Dr. O'Neil."

"There was a plot," Splinter interrupted softly, "hatched by the Foot Clan to poison the people of the city and take the lives of millions of innocents. The mutagen they were working on, the same that flows through us, my sons, is the cure he was seeking. When he realized the Foot had used him all along to create this cure to save themselves, he destroyed all of his research. He is the one who set the lab on fire, Amber, and himself with it."

Hazel eyes closed. "I remember that night. April and I were on our way to say our goodnights, as promised. When April saw the flames, she rushed into the building. I searched through the fire for her, and eventually found her across the street. I was so glad to find her that I never questioned what she was doing there."

"You're our mom."

All eyes turned to the brainy turtle. His doe brown eyes were wide and staring at Amber with a mixture of hope and disbelief. Raph scowled.

"You gotta repeat that, genius. I must not have heard that right."

"She gave her DNA to fuse with the DNA in our blood, thus creating a special mutagen that transformed us from baby turtles to baby turtle humanoids. We carry her genetic codes just like any biological child she would have."

Mikey's eyes lit up. "Sweet! I always wanted a mom!"


End file.
